The Web vs. The Force

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Looking back at the winners and losers of the holiday shopping season, the biggest winner was Amazon. Capturing 51 cents of every additional dollar Americans spent online this year and accounting for over half of e-commerce growth, the Seattle behemoth appears to be unstoppable.

An unlikely winner? Malls – at least high-end ones, which are flourishing. The top-rated malls of 2015 all had upscale department stores, luxury brand stores and high-tech electronics stores.

Big winners? Social media savvy celebrities, with brands paying as much as $300,000 per post for top names like Kendall Jenner and GIgi Hadid. That investment pays off: Estée Lauder’s posts featuring Jenner registered 20 times the engagement of other images.

What’s even bigger than the Internet? Star Wars. When The Force Awakens hit Imax screens, Internet traffic plunged in countries where the film was showing. However, Facebook engagement rates tripled in the following days as fans jumped back on the Internet to discuss the cultural phenomenon.